It matters that people have a way to use the latest findings in psychology beyond buying a pill for depression. It matters that people have a way of looking at their lives that lets them ask the big questions and determine how they want to live – and that this is supported by therapists and mental health professionals.

Categories

Posts tagged with the category 21st century life

Lining Up to Choose

I hate standing on lines.
There are very few things for which I will actually wait. Years back, I waited on line in book store to meet Jimmy Stewart, that great icon of American cinema. I wait on line to get a good seat for my bus trips. I once waited on line for 60 hours for U2 tickets but that experience spoiled the show. The band could never...

Existential Cycling

It was about 6am when I embarked on a training ride on a cool Sunday morning. The house was quiet, and the only sounds were mine as I filled water bottles with ice water, pumped my tires, and opened and shut the door on my way out. The air seemed crisp and clear. The crank-set of my racing bike seemed smooth and so mechanistic. I was aware that it...

Spirituality and Existentialism

Several years ago, Kirk Schneider was interviewed by the student newspaper of the Colorado School of Professional Psychology. The interview asked Schneider what he would be if he were not a psychologist; he responded an “existential theologian.” Existentialism has long included the realm of the transcendent and the role of spirituality in the...

The Hard Won Responsibility

Every four years, we, as Americans, have a unique opportunity to voice our opinion by voting for the next President of the United States. It is a right given to all United States citizens that was not always there. However, according to the United States Census Bureau, in the 2008 presidential election, only 64 percent of the registered voters...

Dialogues in the Dark

A friend and I visited an interactive exhibit this past week entitled “Dialogue in the Dark.” It was an “illuminating” experience for us to enter into the world of the blind. Though the experience was fun for me, I can only imagine what it would be like to lose my sight permanently. I’m trying not to pity the blind, for our blind guide reminded us...

Halloween: A Cultural Reminder of Death Denial

Halloween is a curious cultural phenomenon isn’t it? Whatever else we may say about it, it is probably the most interesting and fascinating holiday from a psychological perspective, in terms of what it reveals concerning our collective psyche.
On the surface level alone, we have plenty of reasons to pause, wonder, and speculate. Indeed, let’s...

The Role of Beauty in Building Resiliency: Seeing Beyond the Problem

The value of therapy can be somewhat of a mystery, even with a general consensus agreeing that it is a tool used to improve one's life and solve problems. However, to an educated clinician, the very word "therapy" is a meta-tool beneath which are many smaller concepts and methods to support any person with any given set of problems. These more...

Life without Asperger’s

The other night I dreamed I was as disabled as some of my clients over the years, the adults with disabilities who I have tried to help fit into a society that doesn’t understand them.
I’ve written before about “having” Asperger’s disorder, mostly about the epistemological problems of a statement like that, and not so much about the limitations I...

Politics and Existentialism: Authoritarian Politics

The United States, using models from both England and France, invented modern politics. The American Revolution was fought, at least in part, over liberty, both political and economic (Breen, 2004; Middlecauff, 1982). The economic part of this equation was relatively simple as the new science of economics was pretty much about abolishing the...

Politics and Existentialism: Civil Politics

“Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friends.”
― John Lennon
It was the kind of fall afternoon that makes me glad I live in Colorado. The sky was a brilliant blue, and the sun illuminated everything you could see. There was a slight breeze causing the golden aspen leafs to shimmer and shake as though tiny dancers....

Politics and Existentialism: Quick Fix Politics and an Awe-Based Democracy

The U.S. is in the midst of the Presidential election, which means that we have been subject to increasing levels of vitriolic communication as the political battle lines have been drawn. It's republicans versus democrats, rich versus poor, and at the core, it is largely about us versus them. The political poles in the U.S. have done an amazingly...

It is easy to become disgusted with politics in the United States today. Corruption seems to be the norm, and there does not appear to be any genuine hope for change. We blame the politicians, the politician system, the parties, and the media, but rarely do we consider our role—the role of the general public. In this blog, I am going to argue that...

Mortality

Death is the great certainty of life -- and a subject we almost never talk about. How we live in its shadow, and the choices we make about the best way to live a life where time is the only non-renewable resource, is a key element of existential thought.